Spontaneous first tattoos

By annalese · May 19, 2011

So, for years, I had been collecting ideas in my head that I eventually wanted to get tattooed somewhere. One of those ideas was to get cherries and a spiderweb- for my mum, Cherry, and for my dad, whose last name is Webber. I had thought about getting them on my wrists, but decided against it, or my hip, but I wasn't so keen, and then I thought of ribs. I had always thought rib tattoos were awesome. This was all going on in the back of my mind, even though I had no idea when I was going to actually get tattooed. These were all just future plans for me, and I wanted to think and think and think about tattoos before I get them permanently inked on my skin. Especially because I'm not a spontaneous person at all.

Now, my girlfriend had 4 tattoos at the time. She had the tattoo bug and we talked about it a little bit, and she'd always say, "I want another tattoo!" So one morning, we woke up, and we talked seriously about getting tattoos. Then she said, "We should go on a road trip to Deane Holland, in Waihi [who did her fist tattoo]. I'll ring now and see if they are busy today." Well, me being me, I was very unsure about going that very day. We had just gotten up! I had just decided I was definitely going to get these tattoos, but not this soon! But there was absolutely no reason why we shouldn't go that day; they weren't busy, neither were we, and we knew what tattoos we wanted. So, I nervously agreed.

A few hours later, we were in Waihi. We went in, and dicussed the tattoos. Deane's apprentice would tattoo Chrissy, and he would tattoo me, as they were my first. I just wanted basic cherries and a web, so we looked online for some suitable images, and printed them. Then, we waited for what seemed like forever for Deane to set up and make the stencils. I was so nervous. It was too spontaneous for my liking, and what are my parents going to think, and should I really be spending this money, and do I really want to be permanently marked, and have I though about it enough, and oh yeah, it's going to hurt too... My mind was racing. Not to mention, Chrissy telling me the ribs were one of the most painful places to get tattooed, and Deane agreed with her, saying I was brave to get my first tattoos there.

After applying the stencil, I sat in the chair and had no idea what to expect, what it would feel like. But I knew at that stage there was no going back. He started, and yep, it hurt. A lot. But it was bearable (as long as I squeezed the hell out of something). After a little while I nearly fainted (I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to piercings and injections, so tattoos were no different), so we took a break, and we resumed with me lying down, which was a lot easier for me. Deane had told me not to talk or move my head while he was tattooing, so I was trying really hard not to move. Unfortunately, breathing makes your ribs move, so I was actually trying not to breathe either. I didn't want to screw up the tattoo! (That probably contributed to me nearly fainting, oops.) After the cherries were finished, we moved on to the spiderweb on my other side. It hurt just as much of course, and sometimes shot pains into my elbow, which was strange. But again, it was bearable.

At one point when Deane was doing the spiderweb, he said, "Ooh- don't move!" I spent the rest of the session terrified that I'd moved and caused a big fuck-up in the tattoo. But it turned out fine, thankfully.

When we were done, I was so happy- I was finally part of that exclusive circle of people who have tattoos, which I'd wanted to be part of for so long! I waited until Chrissy's tattoo was finished (trying to watch the tattoo needle to see how it actually worked, but not being able to see it) and then Deane told us about aftercare. We already had Bepanthen, which I had heard from numerous sources was really good for tattoos, but Deane told us he didn't actually like it (it doesn't let the tattoo breathe), and gave us some little pottles of a different cream. I was also expecting to have to cover it with gladwrap, but he doesn't do that, either. I used the cream while it was initially healing, and then when it was almost healed, I switched to using Bepanthen. I had no problems with them, and they both healed fine. I didn't expect them to be so itchy though!

I've had these tattoos for a few months now, and I have the tattoo bug- I got another tattoo last week, and still have plans in my head for heaps more. I'm really pleased with Deane's work, and pleased that I went through with it at such short notice.

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